The Travelling Teacher: USA - The Blissful Bowels of Bend

July 7-9

Hello everyone!

My great American adventure has so far been mostly restricted to big cities, with the exception of recovery time in north Georgia. The reason I wanted to spend my summer in the richest country in the world was to actually explore its natural riches. I’ve started to find some…

Sparks Lake, Oregeon

The Three Sisters mountains

A lot of research of the Pacific Northwest showed me that there are many stunning sights in the state of Oregon. Many of them could be reached from the town of Bend, in the centre of the state. Kelly picked me up in Portland and we firstly struck east to see one of Oregon’s jewels: the Columbia River Gorge.

Our journey from Portland to end was a little over 200 miles

There is a also a beautiful canyon section that is about 80 miles long

This river was taken by the famed explorers Lewis and Clark on their expedition that reached the Pacific Ocean. One of the things they would have seen was a cascade called the Multnomah Falls.

Over 2 million people viit the falls each year

The waterfall is immensely popular. We didn’t realise that it’s so popular that you have to reserve a time slot to visit. We arrived at about 10am. The next slot was 4pm. We could see it from the car park. It made me think of Stonehenge: you probably get a better view and slightly better experience from paying for a pricey ticket, but you can see and appreciate them from outside.

An internet image of the falls - they do look nice
but we weren't going to wait 6 hours for that!

We couldn’t spend a lot of time in the gorge area as we had a long drive ahead. The other minor detour we took was to Timberline Lodge. It’s famous for being the portrayal of the Overlook Hotel from The Shining. I was more surprised by the fact that there were people skiing here. In July. When the temperature was almost 30’C.

King was actually inspired by a hotel in COlorado

Squint and you can see skiiers!

After a drive through some spectacular canyons, we arrived in Bend. It was a bigger town than we expected, resulting in us meandering around its outskirts - the ‘bowels’ - for a while before ending up downtown. This area contains a river, a lovely brewery and a shop that is the last of its kind…

We had to move inside due to the heat on the terrace

Make it a Blockbuster night!

You remember Blockbuster, right? Scanning the aisles of videos - and later DVDs - to select a film to rent? If you’re a younger reader, you may not. I assumed the ‘bust’ of Blockbuster was related to streaming. Turns out the company didn’t even make it that far, filing for bankruptcy in 2010. There is now only one officially-licensed store left in the world…in Bend, Oregon!

At its peak, Blockbuster had over 9,000
stores - including one in Whitchurch, Cardiff!

I imagine most of their revenue actually comes from
merch showing that it is the final Blockbuster store

Proper nostalgia trip

Back to 2025 and that river: the Deschutes. This stretch of water feeds into the Columbia gorge we had driven by en route. Paddling up and down it on our final morning on really cool foldable kayaks was really fun.

We borrowed another Oru folding kayak for me to use - they're great!

The river flows from south to north

There is water all around Bend in the form of many lakes that can be found along the Cascade Lakes Highway, a road which climbs to the west of Bend and swings around Mt Bachelor - another place where people can ski in the summer. Driving around, we saw some lovely lakes.

Devils Lake, with devilishly lovely colours

Elk Lake - this was more like a resort

Lava Lake looked a bit worse for wear

We didn’t hang around for too long in these places, however; we had already found paradise. Welcome to Sparks Lake.

Trying - and failing - to get both main peaks in the picture

Look at the reflections!

The stunning snow-capped Mt Bachelor erupted about 10,000 years ago. When it did, a rock dam formed which started to capture snowmelt and rainwater. This formed Sparks Lake.

Water like glass

Little fingers to explore are dotted around the lake

Not bad, yeah? Kayaks out, time for a paddle. We later realised that we probably went ‘the wrong way’ to start off, heading north to paddle with a view of the Three Sisters mountains.

Apparently the sisters are called Faith, Hope and Charity

THE REFLECTIONS!!!

Some of the water actually drains from the lake through old lava rocks. There was plenty of water for us to paddle on, however, and the views from the water were breathtaking.

The name is given for a man called Lige Sparks,
a pioneer stockman from central Oregon

The lake is pretty shallow

What was particularly special about this place was the fact that so few people were there. A mile-long dirt track means it takes a bit more effort to get to Sparks in comparison with the other lakes.

Mount Bachelor is 2,764 metres tall

I’m glad that only a few hardy souls did. It meant complete tranquility - Kelly being the prime target for mosquitoes aside - and having the lake almost entirely to ourselves during the morning.

As I can’t run, kayaking is currently my main form of exercise. With the portion sizes in the United States, I need to be doing as much as possible. Take that ice-cream in the picture below as an example. The one that’s height is over half of my face. That is a small. The smallest possible size. Imagine a large. Imagine trying to eat a large before it melted!

Bison smash burger - I partly got this becuse it was one of the
few options that only had one patty, and I really didn't need two!

I think a large would have melted all over
me before I could see inside the cone

I’d never heard of Bend before mapping out my great American adventure. This is the kind of place I wanted to see. A charming town with stunning scenery surrounding it. Bend - and all of its water-filled bowels - is brilliant.